Stations with excursion platforms

[RichJF]

Lingfield (Surrey) had an extra platform for racecourse traffic (along with an extensive goods yard).
It used to have loco hauled & Hastings diesels until it closed in 1972 following 'modernisation'.

 

[scarby]

1976 saw a Wednesday only service to/from Hull.

Hope that helps!

Oh, did it? How interesting.

 

[randyrippley]

Morecambe Promenade would fit in this category too. It had two platforms that were barely used apart from excursion traffic although they weren't specifically excursion platforms.

Was Cleethorpes the same? It looks like it used to have a lot more platforms than perhaps needed all year round?

During the 1950s Morecambe Euston Rd effectively became an excursion station, an overflow for Promenade

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Oh, did it? How interesting.

According to the Alan Young book I mentioned. Hopefully someone with a Summer 1976 BR timetable can confirm the actual service provision.

 

[Western Sunset]

What about Ramsline Halt near Derby? Only ever used once or twice for football traffic

 

[Dr Hoo]

Barmouth - I can only think of the old Ruabon platform east of the Level Crossing on the Up side.

<SNIP>


I would define an Excursion Platform as being separate from the main station in some way, even if it didn't appear in the public timetable as such - eg a separate entrance .

Thanks. Every day you learn something on the Forums.
The 'Ruabon' platform was retained for quite a few years after the 1965 closure of that route and I was under the impression that it was then only used for excursions. It did seem to be separate from the main station.
Perhaps someone can confirm if it was still used for the odd scheduled Cambrian Coast terminator from the south.

 

[brel york]

Boothferry halt

 

[Helvellyn]

I haven't spotted Kempton Park, which is only 600m from Sunbury station and until 2006 it was only served on race days. After that it received a daily service from SWT as part of the Kingston Rounders.

 

[30907]

Thanks. Every day you learn something on the Forums.
The 'Ruabon' platform was retained for quite a few years after the 1965 closure of that route and I was under the impression that it was then only used for excursions. It did seem to be separate from the main station.
Perhaps someone can confirm if it was still used for the odd scheduled Cambrian Coast terminator from the south.

It was signalled for arrivals, so could be used from either line, but was redundant anyway after dieselisation and disused by my first visit in 71 or 72 - and the box diagram on the SRS site has it as the "Excursion Line" so your original point was correct. Using it saved blocking the level crossing.

 

[alistairlees]

According to the Alan Young book I mentioned. Hopefully someone with a Summer 1976 BR timetable can confirm the actual service provision.

I looked in the 1976-77 timetable and there is no Wednesdays only service. All services were Saturdays only to Filey Holiday Camp - and only in summer of course. They were also only in the morning or early afternoon - between 08.46 (first departure) and 14.34 (last departure).

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I looked in the 1976-77 timetable and there is no Wednesdays only service.

According to Alan Young, the Wednesday only experimental service in 1976 was only locally advertised and operated in just July and August that year. Might not have been in any national/regional timetable.

 

[randyrippley]

According to Alan Young, the Wednesday only experimental service in 1976 was only locally advertised and operated in just July and August that year. Might not have been in any national/regional timetable.

Were Wednesdays market days? Demand for holiday drinking and shopping

 

[randyrippley]

Weymouth, the current station uses old excursion platforms 5-6. The old station platforms 1-4 were where Halfords and Tradepoint are now.

Besides the excursion platforms, Weymouth in the 1950s also used the Melcombe Regis platform at the start of the Portland Branch

Disused Stations: Melcombe Regis Station

Interesting point - my memory is that on summer weekends arrivals from Bristol always seemed to be on platform 1, with departures from 5 - even when run by a DMU. Maybe the directional morning inward / evening outward flow dictated that the sets had to hang about all day and not return immediately

 

[alistairlees]

According to Alan Young, the Wednesday only experimental service in 1976 was only locally advertised and operated in just July and August that year. Might not have been in any national/regional timetable.

I was looking in the Great Britain Passenger Timetable, so you could well be right.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I was looking in the Great Britain Passenger Timetable, so you could well be right.

Where did the scheduled Saturday services to/from Filey Holiday Camp station in 1976 originate from / go to? (Presumably not just Scarborough and Hull).

 

[30907]

Besides the excursion platforms, Weymouth in the 1950s also used the Melcombe Regis platform at the start of the Portland Branch

I don't know about excursions, it was used for booked arrivals on summer Saturdays, but not AFAIK for departures (much easier to manage arrivals!).

 

[alistairlees]

Where did the scheduled Saturday services to/from Filey Holiday Camp station in 1976 originate from / go to? (Presumably not just Scarborough and Hull).

Here you go

Departures
08.46 to Newcastle (via Scarborough; started from FHC)
09.00 to Sheffield (from Scarborough dep. 08.35; reversed at FHC; via the Hull avoiding line)
09.50 to Scarborough (From Hull dep. 08.36, reversed at FHC)
11.34 to Liverpool Lime Street (via Scarborough; started from FHC)
12.00 to Hull (from Scarborough, reversed at FHC)
12.14 to Scarborough (started from FHC)
12.40 to Leicester (from Scarborough dep. 12.01; reversed at FHC; via Hull avoiding line)
14.34 to Scarborough (started from FHC)

Arrivals that terminated
11.04 (from Newcastle dep. 07.20; via Scarborough)
11.22 (from Leeds dep. 09.05; via Scarborough)
11.26 (from Leeds dep. 09.05; via Selby and the Hull avoiding line)
14.11 (from Scarbrough)

A long-gone age!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Thanks. Good stuff. Have read elsewhere that steam excursions to Scarborough often used to convolutedly reverse into the triangle at Filey Holiday Camp to effectively be turned around for the return working from Scarborough (this in the absence of a working turntable at Scarborough). This probably would no longer have been possible after 1977.

 

[Red Onion]

I may be wrong but I seem to recall Barry Links had a former excursion platform

 

[30907]

Departures
12.40 to Leicester (from Scarborough dep. 12.01; reversed at FHC; via Hull avoiding line)

IIRC that was a sort of triangular working, running directly to Scarborough, then serving FHC and Brid en route home.

 

[alistairlees]

IIRC that was a sort of triangular working, running directly to Scarborough, then serving FHC and Brid en route home.

You're right - the 07.52 Leicester to Scarbrough (arr. 11.51), via York. This had a 10-minute run round at Scarborough, before leaving as the 12.01 back to Leicester via Filey Holiday Camp and Bridlington. It actually had an 18-minute run-round at FHC.

 

[Dr Hoo]

I may be wrong but I seem to recall Barry Links had a former excursion platform

From old photographic records Barry Links had a loop platform for military specials in connection with a nearby army camp. As the trains wouldn't have been regularly timetabled I suppose that they were 'excursions' for soldiers en route to the Western Front, etc. in a way.
Not for bucket+spade or golf purposes so far as I am aware.

 

[Trainfan2019]

Are the abandoned disused platforms at Crewe (behind platform 12) former excursion platforms?

 

[scarby]

Thanks. Good stuff. Have read elsewhere that steam excursions to Scarborough often used to convolutedly reverse into the triangle at Filey Holiday Camp to effectively be turned around for the return working from Scarborough (this in the absence of a working turntable at Scarborough). This probably would no longer have been possible after 1977.

They did indeed.

I don't know if this practice remained possible for a limited period after 1977 before track lifting and when the turntable was reopened. Certainly without either a loco couldn't be turned! But in the 1970s and early 1980s there were much less steam-operated specials to Scarborough than in recent years.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

16 mile round trip? (Scarborough -> Filey Holiday Camp triangle-> Scarborough)

 

[scarby]

16 mile round trip? (Scarborough -> Filey Holiday Camp triangle-> Scarborough)

That’s right. I can just remember this happening, probably from 1973 when Bittern and Sir Nigel Gresley visited. The locos went away for some time to be turned at the triangle.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Porthcawl ?

 

[30907]

Are the abandoned disused platforms at Crewe (behind platform 12) former excursion platforms?

No. I don't think Crewe was ever a great tourist magnet

 

[ChiefPlanner]

No. I don't think Crewe was ever a great tourist magnet

I am reminded of kicking around at Crewe in the mid 1970's in the days when the service was a bit thin heading towards South Wales and being amused at posters advertising "Great Little escapes from Crewe" ......

 

[Bevan Price]

Are the abandoned disused platforms at Crewe (behind platform 12) former excursion platforms?

Until the 1980s rebuild, that was Platform 1, used with Platform 2 (now 12) for many northbound departures on WCML.